A Chinese humanoid robot has stunned the robotics world after completing the 100-metre sprint in just 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, a time faster than Usain Bolt’s longstanding men’s world record of 9.58 seconds.
The robot, Tiangong Ultra, was developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center and recorded the remarkable time during a preliminary heat at the games. Bolt set the human men’s 100-metre world record at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
Tiangong Ultra completed the distance in 9.39 seconds, overtaking another Chinese humanoid robot, Lightning, near the finish line. Lightning also posted an extraordinary time of 9.47 seconds, faster than Bolt’s human record. The result represents a dramatic improvement in humanoid robot performance. At the previous edition of the competition, the winning 100-metre time was 21.50 seconds, showing just how rapidly robotic mobility and running performance have advanced within a year.
The World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing have brought together 666 teams and 2,056 robots from 16 countries, with competitions spanning athletics, football, boxing, weightlifting, gymnastics and other events. The event has attracted widespread attention as humanoid robots demonstrate capabilities that were considered far beyond their reach only a short time ago. Footage from the sprint also showed the challenges that remain. After crossing the finish line at high speed, the robots relied on large padded barriers to stop, with some losing balance or falling after completing their races.
The 9.39-second performance does not replace Usain Bolt’s official human athletics world record, because robot competitions and human athletics are separate categories. However, it provides a striking comparison of how quickly humanoid robotic locomotion is improving. With Tiangong Ultra cutting more than 12 seconds from last year’s winning robot time and running the distance faster than the fastest officially recorded human 100-metre performance, the achievement stands as a major milestone in the development of humanoid robotics. The result highlights the accelerating pace of innovation in China’s robotics sector and offers a glimpse of how quickly humanoid machines are advancing in speed, balance and mobility.
